Even more political than the first. Slow. Sarai never struck me as a worthy candidate, so no loss when she scuppered off to Carthak, but the loss of Elsra and the poor boy king, but four years old, was tragic.

Of course, many more die as is inevitable in such a situation, but that never makes it any easier to read and far from pleasant.

Did not care at all for how Aly and Nawat's relationship was pretty much non-existent for 80% of the book. They never interact and the moment that he returns they have sex. Hmm, no thanks. I had liked Nawat as a character up until then, but his "manliness" just meaning he wanted sex and now was not compelling on any level.

I was glad that Nawat had gone off and been a leader, learned what he wanted and that Aly could not just boss him around. But for that to be the endgame and the culmination of his learning what it was to be human? Pathetic.

And OF COURSE they can have sex WHENEVER since Aly has a magical anti-pregnancy charm that will ensure they won't have to deal with any unwanted consequences. *sigh*

So, not happy with this one. On the one hand, I knew that was mostly inevitable given the social situation and the fall-out from that, but the Nawat/Aly stuff tipped this one over the edge for me.

The darklings were quite adorable in their way and a welcome addition.

Overall? Overly long, drawn out and depressing. Not what I needed to be reading for this vacation.